This invention relates to low speed motors mounted on a bass boat or the like, and used by fishermen to troll the boat while they fish, and more particularly, to an apparatus for raising and lowering such a motor so it can be lowered into the water when the fisherman wants to fish at a desired location in a lake or other waterway and raised during the time the fisherman is going to and returning from the location.
Many fishermen fish from boats which are typically driven from a boat dock or other launch site to a desired fishing spot by an outboard motor which is usually a large horsepower motor. At the site, which may be the shallow water along the bank of a stream, the backwater of a tributary, or the inlet of a lake, a fisherman may want to move slowly about the area while he fishes. For this purpose, the boat may come equipped with, or the fisherman may attach, a small horsepower outboard motor called a trolling motor This is a motor designed to move the boat at slow speeds but with sufficient power to push it through brush, reeds, or other shoreline growth. While such a motor may be permanently mounted on the boat so its propeller is underwater, this is not especially desirable because the motor produces a pronounced drag on the boat when it is being driven by the larger horsepower motor. Consequently, many trolling motors are removably installed on a mount so the fisherman can install the motor when he reaches his chosen site and remove it when he gets ready to leave. While not heavy, installing and removing a trolling motor does take time, and can be difficult to do on windy days or in choppy water. Compounding this problem is the fact many trolling motors are mounted on the front end of a boat (this being because the larger horsepower motor is mounted on the back end). If the boat is a "bass" type boat, or flat boat, this may make no appreciable difference because that end of the boat is easy to get at. If, however, the boat is one of those having a steering means in its aft section, a cowling or hood covering its forward section, and a windshield separating the two sections, installation of the trolling motor becomes much more difficult. Now, someone must carry the motor over the hood (which usually does not have hand holds or foot holds), and install and remove it, all the while making sure he, or the motor, do not fall overboard.
Attempts have been previously made to address this problem of trolling motor installation. Devices, such as hoisting apparatus, to which a trolling motor is permanently attached so it can be more readily raised and lowered have been developed. Most of these devices, though, while providing means for pivotal movement of the trolling motor with respect to its permanently mounted base between a horizontal disposition of storage atop the forward end of the boat, or as along its railing at a back edge, or being pivoted into vertical disposition downwardly into the water, for application and usage, have been devised Normally, these type of means for manipulation of a trolling motor are manually operated, and have a rope, cable, or the like attached to the trolling motor, and which is pulled by the fisherman, for manipulating the trolling motor between its in water disposition, or out of the same as when not in usage. In some instances, electrically powered hoists have been used to aid the fisherman in raising and lowering of the trolling motor more quickly. For example, the U.S. Pat. No. 3,965,844, to Brock, shows an apparatus for pivotally mounting of a fishing motor. But, this particular device incorporates a series of cable segments for achieving a motivation of the trolling motor, as supported by the box-like means as shown, for shifting the trolling motor between its operative and inoperative positions. The device includes its mounting frame, a drive wheel, a bracket carried by the mounting frame, and cable means to render it operative. These types of means, in the form of cable, are just not incorporated into the current invention.
The U.S. Pat. No. 3,980,039, to Henning, is also upon an electrically operated bow mount for a trolling motor. This device incorporates a trolling motor that can be shifted between its vertical position, to it horizontal inoperative position, and such is achieved through the usage of a single supporting mounting bracket, that mounts by means of a support plate to the deck of the boat. Motivation for the device is achieved through the reversible motor, as shown, controlled remotely, which apparently actuates a gearing arrangement that partially turns a gear, and provides for a raising and pivoting of the motor tube, through the agency of its integral elongated gear rack, as associated therewith.
The U.S. Pat. No. 3,930,461, is also upon an apparatus for pivotally mounting an outboard fishing motor to a boat. It discloses a trolling motor, that is supported on a bracket, and the bracket is mechanically turned by a cable arrangement, as can be seen, between its non-use position, as shown horizontally and located upon the boat, but which may be pivoted into a vertical disposition, as shown in hidden line, when arranged in an operative position. There is a reversible electric motor that is interconnected within the structure of this device, for achieving the pivot of the trolling motor, through its bracket, about the guide member as disclosed. This particular device is of a rather complex structure, and requires the usage of an arcuately curved guide member within its structure, in order to achieve its functioning.
Another U.S. Pat. No. 3,948,204, to Brock, is also upon an apparatus for pivotally mounting an outboard motor, onto a fishing boat. But, once again, this apparatus still incorporates the use of cable means, and a drive wheel combination, for achieving a shifting of the trolling motor between its inoperative position, as generally shown in its drawings, and into its vertical disposition, when operating, as shown in solid line within this patent. It defines an elongated mounting frame, adapted to be fixed to the boat, and includes a slide block that mounts for slidable linear movement along the full length of the mounting frame. Such structure is not incorporated into the embodiment of this current invention.